Do you want to increase the engagement with your fans and followers on social media? Are you ready to be more consistent with your social media presence? Is it time to start tracking insights and analytics to see what you can learn from all your hard social media work? If you answered yes to any of the above questions then it’s time to start developing a social media strategy!

I recently wrote about social media management tips, and one of those tips was the importance of developing a social media strategy. Doing so will help you determine how often you will post, what type of content your audience is most interested in reading and setting goals, just to name a few.

Here’s how I create a social media strategy, and why I think it’s important to take the time to do each action.

Audience analysis – First I think it’s important to see who your current social media audience is, so you can make sure that you’re reaching the correct people. So, look at the demographics of your current followers. Do they align with the consumers you’re trying to reach in your business? If not, then once you create a social media strategy you will be able to better target that audience. The key is to make sure you have a strong understanding of whom you want to target in order to reach your business goals.

Research competitors – Just as you research your competitors in a business plan, you should do the same for a social media plan. See where your competitors are spending time on social media, what their engagement looks like and how often they are posting.

What social media outlets make sense ­– Once you have researched your competitors and have done an audience analysis - it’s time to determine what social media outlets make sense for your business. This should be easy to do once you have that information since each social media outlet has a different purpose.

Set goals – After you know where you will be spending time on social media, it’s important to set benchmarks and goals. Where does your company currently stand on social media? How many followers do you currently have? How many followers do you want to have in a month, six months, a year? Set goals that are realistic and make sense for your company.

Frequency of Posts – Based on your goals, you will want to determine how often you will post on social media. Maybe you want to post every day on Instagram and Twitter, but only post two to three times a week on Facebook. It’s important to figure this out now.

Type of content – After you set how many times you will post on social media, think about the types of content you will be posting. It’s important to get a variety of media on social media, especially Facebook. So, be sure to upload videos directly to Facebook. Make sure to include a photo or a link as often as possible with posts.

This is a basic understanding of how I develop a social media strategy. If you’re looking for help developing your own social media strategy then feel free to contact us for more information.